COLLEGE FOOTBALL / BOWL REPORT : ORANGE: NEBRASKA vs. MIAMI, Tonight : Why Not Send In the Clowns?

The halftime circus came to town and left elephant tracks all over the Orange Bowl field. Of course, it could have been worse.

As part of the annual Orange Bowl halftime extravaganza, organizers of the show scheduled a Friday run-through, complete with actual elephants. There were protests from team officials, who were worried about damage to the playing field.

They were right. The elephants left marks, as did some of the equipment used during the show.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne wasn’t thrilled and said so. By Saturday morning, when he made his final pregame press appearance, Osborne had lightened up a bit.

“If we have to leap over elephant tracks, it will make for interesting play calls,” he said.

Asked jokingly which Cornhusker quarterback--Tommie Frazier or Brook Berringer--could deal best with elephant tracks, Osborne said, “I think Berringer--he’ll throw over them.”

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A conversation with Miami All-American defensive tackle Warren Sapp:

Question: If Miami and Penn State win, do you think you deserve at least half of the national championship?

Answer: Would you vote for us?

Q: Don’t know. Tough argument.

A: That’s what I say. I say you can’t go 12-0 and be cheated out of a national championship. That’s a pretty empty feeling.

Q: Especially after a Big Ten schedule.

A: C’mon, it’s not that tough. Michigan lost three home games for the first time since World War I and you’re going to tell me that the Big Ten is strong? The conference fell off, like, c’mon.

Q: “You mean to say that if you go undefeated in the Big Ten, that’s not worth something?

A: Name three teams in the Big Ten, please.”

Q: Penn State. . . .

A: Aw, I thought they were playing a Big East schedule, playing Temple and Rutgers.

Q: You played Temple and Rutgers.

A: That’s our conference. We didn’t go out of our conference and go pick up LSU out of the SEC or Arkansas out of the SEC. They went and got our bottom two teams. They got a bunch of yards put on them by Rutgers. We play defense here, the best in the business. So don’t give me that (Penn State) offense stuff--no, no, no, no.

Q: Let’s say you and Penn State played each other. . . .

A: I wish. I wish. I wish. Aw, I wish there was a remote opportunity to get my hands on them.

Q: What would happen?

A: It would be a good game. But it’s not going to happen, so there’s no sense of fantasizing.